Homebaking

“After a long day at college and listening to the wife moan about Christmas I came across this article. I decided to give it a go !!! Think I might have got carried away !!!”

Independent 27^th October 2013,

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/

Feeling depressed? Maybe you need to knead: New research reveals how baking is helping to lift thousands of people out of depression

What with all the cupcakes-at-dawn hype over BBC2's Great British Bake Off final last week, which concluded in dramatic fashion with a surprise winner amid accusations of misogyny, it can be hard to forget that baking isn't all about the frivolous.

But new research into the industry has revealed baking's more serious side: as a crucial therapy that is helping to lift thousands of people out of depression.

John Whaite, the GBBO 2012 winner who has described suffering from crippling depression, believes baking is emerging "as a form of pill-less Prozac". In a report today for the Real Bread Campaign, he calls for more people "suffering from mental health issues, or who are simply going through a tough time to get the chance to try their hand at baking real bread to see how it could help them". Mr Whaite, ambassador for the campaign group Baking a Smile, said he is inundated with people contacting him to discuss "how baking helps with their various mental health issues".

Bakeries are being set up all over the country to help people facing a range of different challenges, from acclimatising to life on civvy street to struggling with learning disabilities. They include the Better Health Bakery in Haggerston, east London, which provides training placements for adults living with mental health issues; Aberdeen's the bread maker, a social enterprise that runs an apprenticeship scheme offering work experience to 24 adults with learning disabilities; and Dough Devils, a co-operative bakery in Manchester run by a group of ex-offenders.

Paul Youd, in Taunton, Somerset, runs bread-making sessions for parents and children in homeless shelters, and sufferers of domestic abuse. He writes about his experience at his No Bread Is an Island blog. In Yeatman Hospital, in Sherborne, Dorset, the community mental health team runs a therapeutic baking group for its elderly patients with dementia and is working on a recipe book called Baking Memories.

The Real Bread Campaign, which received a four-year grant in 2009 from the Big Lottery's Local Food programme to bring real bread back into local communities, said the potential number of people who could benefit from a spot of kneading "runs into the hundreds of thousands or even millions". About one-quarter of the population has mental health issues in any one year, the report said.

A gift from the kids !!!!

i dunno what there trying to tell me lol !

italian cuisine

Here's a few pictures taken of italian food effort in class it was a great effort from all , this is our effort we worked in pairs for this class and i think for a first effort we turned out a couple of nice plates and i feel that my presentation is coming along and  gradually improving !                                                                                                                                                                                         pictured here is our take on tagliatelle,roast peppers&goats cheese,mushroom.                            

the homemade burger !

The homemade burger !!! 

 heres my take on the homemade burger , simple but certainly different to any sort of burger i had  made before  this was a fresh look at a classic , the thinly sliced onion rings made all the difference. 

pork!

Gruesome i know but as i was to find out ,there were many things that i didn't know . Chef quinn boiled the head in brine and herbs for about 4 /5 hours and then deconstructed the head showing the class the different aspects to this popular animal, the brain the cheeks , how to use and cook with the majority of the head even the ears !! having seen this i have a lot more respect for the rasher ! i mean the piggy, joking aside i found this class very interesting cooking trotters(crew beans) hocks(knees) all parts of the animal that i wouldnt have considered before .                                                                                                                             below i have a  picture of the pork belly dish with pigs cheek deep fried pigs ear garnish .(pork scratching)
i think it turned out very well considering most techniques we used were new to me.  i had made roast pork belly before but as the course progresses i feel i am taking on board other elements that are helping my end results .(hopefully)                  

fish populette!

  fish populette , the class effort was good and it laid the foundations for my effort at home which i thought turned out very well having learned how to go about  making this dish not a bad effort .                                                                                                 

The home effort served with crushed potato and thyme went down a treat . This dish was fairly easy to do considering i had only ever done it once . Served with my own touch at home delicious! a dish i will do and tweek again and again  tip .(the folding of the paper is important to make sure that the fish steams )

fish demonstration !

well here we are coming in to the festive period already! the time has passed very quickly so i have had to take stock of what we have learned as  a class and  as an individual . some things i found great and others a bit more tricky but hey we aint perfect ha ha ! .    

                                                                                                            here i have a picture from a demonstration our class watched by chef eric from restaurant la boheme ! in waterford very interesting explaining a few aspects of sea food that i never would have thought of, sourcing , quality,a lovely seafood bisque pictured here was on the menu that day and was duly devoured by the class. cheers eric !!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

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